Unit 2: What is Tragedy?

So who has to deal with tragedy usually? Well there are many people who assume that tragedy is an event usually found around kings, or people high up on the social latter. However, that is not always the case.

According to Tragedy and The Common Man, by Arthur Miller, common men are just as likely to face tragic events, the reason being that the common man understands fear better than those high up on the social latter. "The quality in such plays that does shake us, however, derives from the underlying fear of being displaced, the disaster inherent in being torn away from our chosen image of what and who we are in this world. Among us today this fear is strong, and perhaps stronger, than it ever was. In fact, it is the common man who knows this fear best. (Miller) Common man are more familiar with this fear because they are afraid of losing their place in society. They work hard to keep a certain image in this world, and they do not want to lose that.

People who are socially ranked above the common man don't necessarily have that same fear of losing their place in society. They are just naturally at the top, usually with no fear of falling. Those fears that follow the uncommon man allow tragedy to become more likely to occur. Therefore it is more likely for tragedy to be among the common man.It is definitely common in the modern common man, because the men who are not already up high on the social latter especially don't want to lose their place in society.